When choosing the ideal packaging solutions for your products, you may opt for either traditional paper corrugated or plastic corrugated packaging materials. Each material offers unique benefits for specific applications, depending on the end use, your goals around sustainability, and your available packaging budget.
In this guide, you’ll learn more about the differences between corrugated boxes and corrugated plastic and when to select either material for your products.
Corrugated Boxes vs. Corrugated Plastic
Both corrugated boxes and plastic corrugated packaging work to protect many types of products, but the material you choose will depend on certain factors.
Plastic Corrugated
This material consists of durable die-cut plastic featuring multiple cross-corrugated layers. Its sturdiness makes plastic corrugated packaging reusable up to 100 times, which is why it’s one of the more cost-effective and sustainable materials available.
Other key features of plastic corrugated shipping boxes include:
- Lightweight design that’s only 1/3 to 1/5 the weight of ATA-type packaging cases
- Shock-resistant nature via shock-absorbing liners
- Weather-proof materials that are also easy to clean, enabling them to hold up in harsh conditions and after heavy use
- Resistance to tampering using reliable security sealing solutions
These aspects make plastic corrugated packaging a popular option for a wide range of applications requiring superior durability and longevity, such as medical devices, electronics, musical instruments, aerospace components, rare artifacts, and trade show materials.
Corrugated Boxes
Another common material is corrugated boxes, which comprises flat linerboard layers with adhered wavy medium, fluted paper. Depending on requirements, you can implement single-wall, double-wall, or triple-wall corrugated boxes, with triple-wall cardboard offering the highest level of strength.
Some other benefits of paper corrugated boxes include the following:
- High biodegradability and recyclability for single-use and environmentally sustainable applications
- Cost-effectiveness with one-way shipping orders
- Many size options to enable fast fulfillment
- Customized printing of labels and graphics for marketing and brand awareness
Many applications can make use of corrugated boxes packaging when plastic corrugated packaging isn’t suitable, including e-commerce products, retail displays and fulfillment, point-of-sale packaging, and general distribution.
Are Corregated Boxes or Plastic Corregated Materials Right for You?
While both corrugated boxes and plastic corrugated materials offer their unique advantages, it’s important to make the right choice for your specific application.
Ultimately, you should choose plastic corrugated materials if you intend to reuse your packaging materials several times, your products are of high sensitivity or value and need extra protection, you need reliable tamper resistance, or if the packaging will be in wet or harsh environments.
Meanwhile, corrugated paper or cardboard materials are suitable for applications in need of single-use and cost-effective solutions. You may also benefit more from this option if you wish to prioritize recyclability or sustainability and if standard packaging sizes are sufficient to meet your needs.
Another factor to consider is the total cost of ownership for packaging. Plastic corrugated packaging comes with higher initial costs but, through reuse up to 100 times, can save significantly on cost-per-use. Conversely, paper corrugated materials might cost less upfront, but this low initial price comes at the cost of single-use applications that could lead to higher costs in the long run.
Let Alpha Packaging Help You Decide
If you’re not sure which type of packaging material to choose, the decision will depend largely on the intended application, your packaging budget, and the number of times you wish to use your packaging. At Alpha Packaging, you’ll be able to implement both options, with custom packaging available to meet your specific project specifications.
Whether you want to use corrugated plastic or paper materials, we can optimize packaging with custom foam inserts, white label printing for branding and marketing, and design and prototyping services with unparalleled expertise, all of which can contribute to the perfect solution for your business.
Our team is ready to evaluate your precise packaging needs and make a personalized recommendation to maximize both protection and cost-effectiveness for your products.
Contact us today to speak with one of our packaging experts or request a quote for a custom solution at any time.